Saving Skin

Bioengineered skin — grown in the lab using small samples of human cells — offers an alternative to animal testing.
Proponents argue that tissue models provide both ethical and scientific advantages. Scientists don’t have to extrapolate human responses from animal-derived data and test results are easier to reproduce from lab to lab.

While limited, bio-engineered models are finding a niche as tools to screen out drugs likely to fail in clinical trials.